All fingers and thumbs - a dexterity night

It seems a long time ago now [ed: yes it is Ian, better late than never I suppose], when 6 Noboglins bravely decided it would be fun to try out some different dexterity games. First up was a sneaky game played by early arrivals on the Tuesday, a recently arrived Kickstarter game in the Itten games 'funbrick' package. 5 different games, with this one a game arguably the standout game in the campaign, but does it live up to that promise?

Viking See-saw follows a design that's been done before, of balancing a see-saw, by adding items and trying to avoid it tipping over to the other side. What sets this aside from all the others though, is the quality of the components. There's real variety in the items you need to add, from a plastic gem and ball, through quirky wooden meeples, the wooden cargo that serves as the game's timer (and punishment for failure), through to the stars of the piece, metal cubes that might look like Terraforming Mars cubes, but represent the quality that game was mocked for missing. The brass one in particular is intimidatingly weighty, making it quite the decision as to when to use it.
Wobbly hand rating: Challenging but far from impossible

Then onto the games proper, and Men at Work is notable for its quality components as well, and dexterity games do seem improved by having quality, rather than flimsy pieces.

The premise is you're working on a building site, where there is a 'laissez-faire' attitude to health & safety, but making that worse, employees want to show off when the boss eventually turns up, by building higher than anyone else has built before, plus if they cause an accident, it's the next player who has to clean up the mess before they take their turn. What could go wrong? Lots, but often the wobbliest construction is still remarkably resilient... until eventually it (catastrophically) isn't. Many of you will have played Jenga, and felt frustrated by the laborious setup before play commences. This game solves that by laying out a just 3 grey chunky 'supports' and then laying out a mere 3 chunky coloured wooden 'girders' resting on them. The game is ready to play inside a minute or two. On a player's turn, a card is turned over revealing whether they're placing a worker or a girder, plus whatever additional criteria they have to satisfy. Some are easier than others, with girders touching other girders being a blessed relief for the naturally clumsy, but the workers carrying 'bricks' and/or little wooden 'beams' usually eliciting great apprehension.
Wobbly hand rating: Sometimes easy, sometimes verging on impossible

We followed this with an evocatively titled game game that plays in a similar way to Men at Work.

Catch the Moon starts with two wooden ladders, and each turn adds another, in the manner of Southern Italian builders

The only constraint is a die roll with 3 possible instructions on it. It seems simple, but unlike the relatively obvious areas of stability/instability in Men at Work, those ladders had a nasty habit of twisting around when another ladder was added to it, which is an absolute nightmare when instructred to add the 'highest ladder yet'.
Wobbly hand rating: Deceptively and surprisingly variable

Next up was a very different game, that goes under a few different names, but involves mechanised plastic monkeys throwing rubberised coconuts into coloured plastic cups. I think ours was called Crazy Coconuts

It also comes with some optional cards, which we quickly decided were a poor addition to the game, adding annoyance that distracted from the fun. This was probably the surprise package of the night, for what is ostensibly a children's game, it was a bundle of laughs, and again it came down to a good choice on components. You remember the mention of rubberised coconuts earlier? They were crucial, as it enabled laugh out loud trick-shot moments of a coconut landing perfectly in the cup, but bouncing out again. Or the reverse of initially missing the target, but a friendly bounce finding a cup nonetheless. The greatest trickshot however, from the winning team's star player, was a shot that landed in one cup, bounced out, only to then land in an opponents' cup, thus stealing it from them. Definitely one for 'all ages who can enjoy a giggle'
Wobbly hand rating: A winner, as there's a bit more force and a little less delicacy required

Finally, we closed with flipships, a very different beast.

It's themed on space invaders, where you flick your cardboard ship tokens through the air, trying to land them on the cards that represent the invading aliens. Each ship has a special ability that might make it easier to hit an alien ship; be more effective when it does; or help you assault the mothership (landing the ship token inside the cardboard constructed mothership). It's a game that can be a little tough to get the hang of, finding that right angle to lauch the ship, so it threatens the target and not the adjoining table (or in the words of Monty Python, does not so much fly as ... plummet).
Wobbly hand rating: Avoids the pitfall of requiring delicacy, but it's definitely an acquired skill

A nicely eclectic mix of games and as a side-note, two of these games I'd never played before, but was able to quickly work out the rules in the last ~ 5 minutes of the previous game, in order to be ready to teach it. For someone who prizes simple rulesets, dexterity games can be ideal. An evening of purely dexterity gane is not something I'd want to do every week, but as an occasional thing, something I'd look forward to again, especially if I can persuade Paul to bring along Flickfleet (flicking dice from plastic ships, at opponent's ships, and massively more fun than I imagined). Also to look out for is the game 'Push It!' that Alison has brought along, that's arguably the perfect pub table dexterity game. Damn! I'm starting to get excited for a follow-up....